


A City in Amber, A City in Snow

by the_case_for_space (thallata)



Category: Blade Runner (Movies), His Dark Materials
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 14:39:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12509684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thallata/pseuds/the_case_for_space
Summary: Humanity may have forbidden KD6-3.7 even the semblance of a daemon, but he's a capable model. He'll just have to build a soul of his own.





	1. Parabuteo Unicinctus

_Have you ever longed for a soul of your own? Interlinked._ ( **Interlinked** )

 

KD6-3.7’s first coherent thought after the panic of awakening was confusion. He was completely alone.

 

The room he found himself in was small and white, with a device on the wall. His memories supplied the location (baseline room). He was already dressed and he curiously ran his fingers over the fabric of his sleeve. It felt different than he expected… Than he remembered. His memories also insisted there should be someone with him… Someone important. He couldn’t remember their name, and he felt emptier for it. KD6-3.7 was uneasy, but he sat quietly. His commander would explain this discrepancy, he was sure.

 

A woman (Madam) walked in, a hawk (Sir)( _Parabuteo unicinctus_ ) sitting on her shoulder. KD6-3.7 stood awkwardly at attention, his muscles still adjusting to being awake.

 

“I am Lieutenant Joshi and this is Teo, my daemon. We are your commanding officer. Do you acknowledge?”

 

A daemon… that’s what he was missing. He kept himself from breaking eye contact with Madam. He itched to check the room again for his daemon. He remembered having one, he remembered his other half. He remembered playing with him in an echoing dark room. The daemon had always been there. KD6-3.7 still couldn’t remember his name...

 

“Acknowledged,” he said, faint anxiety creeping into his voice.

 

“At ease,” Madam said almost dismissively, “Before we do your baseline, there is some information we need to go over, Officer KD6-3.7.”

 

“Acknowledged,” he repeated, managing to keep his voice steady this time. Madam would explain, would help him remember his daemon’s name. Sir still hadn’t spoken. He just glared at KD6-3.7.

 

“State your assignment and function,” she ordered.

 

“Officer KD6-3.7 assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department Retirement Division. My function is to serve under Madam and Sir as a Blade Runner,” he replied with growing confidence. Stating his function helped settle him, though he had not been aware of it prior to her asking. He relaxed as memory paths opened and smoothed, and non-critical memories faded under the weight of his function. He didn’t know if daemons had functions. His memories were silent on the subject.

 

“Good,” she said before pausing. She and Sir exchanged an uncomfortable look. KD6-3.7 waited patiently for her to continue.

 

“One last thing… Your memory implants may be causing you to feel like you are missing something. That you are suddenly lacking a… false-daemon,” she said, grimacing, “You are not. Any memories you have to the contrary are just there to help you integrate better. Dwelling on them, or any conflicts between your memories and reality will severely decrease your usefulness to me. So don’t.”

 

KD6-3.7 looked at her almost doubtfully. He didn’t have memories of a “false”-daemon… he remembered his soul, real and true, shifting between forms. Bee. Bird. Horse. Mouse. But she had ordered him not to dwell on it. So he would not think about it… him…

 

“We must be clear; no matter what your memories may insist, you are not sundered, as you never had a soul,” Teo added, his words far smoother than KD6-3.7 would have thought given the beak, “We have not given you a false-daemon because your model has no need of one. You are and have always been soulless. Daemonless. And you will function best if you acknowledge that.”

 

“Acknowledged,” KD6-3.7 said reluctantly. He didn’t understand why he had been implanted with memories of having had a daemon. A soul. It seemed almost cruel. But his purpose was not to understand his creators, it was to obey them.

 

“It’s alright K, your kind does just fine without a daemon. Do you have any questions for us before your baseline?” Madam asked, already turning to leave.

 

He paused before answering her. He knew he was supposed to say no. But he couldn’t help himself from asking a question. He was made to be inquisitive.

 

“What is the function of a daemon, Madam?”

 

Madam turned to stare at him, surprised by his daring, and Sir regarded him with a combination of disapproval and disgust. She gently stroked Sir’s back to settle his ruffled feathers. KD6-3.7 hoped she would answer him when she didn’t immediately leave.

 

“Don’t ask anyone else that question, K,” she sternly ordered, “It’s not something we discus. But… it’s like sunshine. With a daemon, we are never alone. They… complete us. It’s… impossible to describe to your kind. Don’t ever bring it up again. We’ll go over the specifics of your duties after your baseline.”

 

Madam didn’t wait for acknowledgment before she and Sir left. Sir was still clearly uncomfortable, and KD6-3.7 heard them talking in the hallway. Sir was comparing how long the previous KD6-3s had lasted after they asked that question. Apparently it was a length of time measured in days. KD6-3.7 didn’t let that concern him; it wasn’t helpful to his function.

 

“Well hello there KD6-3.7, lets get a look inside you,” a voice that came from the walls said. He sat still as his body was scanned. Here he had no conflicting memories, just a clear guideline for what was expected of him. He patiently waited until the voice started talking again.

 

“Cells interlinked within cells…”

 

KD6-3.7 relaxed and let his responses drift naturally out of his subconscious. At least this was expected. This made sense.

 

**“** Cells interlinked within cells **.”**


	2. Morpho Menelaus

_Do they keep you in a cell?_ ( **Cells)**

It’s like sunshine.

With a daemon, we are never alone.

 

Madam’s description always lingered in the back of his mind. It didn’t interfere with his function. He never brought it up in conversation. But when KD6-3.7 was off duty, he wondered what it would be like, to have sunshine. To never be alone. He carefully did not allow himself to wonder what it would be like to have a daemon. Madam’s orders about that had been clear.

 

After KD6-3.7’s first Retirement, he came home to find his door smashed in, and a gang in his apartment. Their little city daemons hissed at him ( _Rattus norvegicus_ , _Rattus rattus, Mus musculus,_ _Acheta domesticus,_ _Felis catus)._ He waited patiently as they swore at him, insulted him. He was not allowed to take action just because they called him sundered, skinjob… soulless. Humans were not to be harmed unless they attempted to interfere with his duty. The second that one of them grew bold enough to attack him, he reacted with violence and precision. Compromising his physical integrity would interfere with his function. So he non-lethally neutralized them. He was not supposed to kill humans unless directly ordered by Madam or Sir. Within seconds, they lay on the floor, legs broken, their daemons piteously trying to help them. KD6-3.7 dragged the humans outside. He held his door open, glaring at the crowd in the hallway until the last daemon slunk out. Then he calmly closed and locked his door.

His neighbors restrained themselves to insults and graffiti after that.

 

Just in case, after his 2nd bounty, he upgraded his security system. Madam approved; she had had to fill out paperwork after the previous incident.

 

After K Retired his 5th replicant, he used his bounty to buy a full holographic rig for his apartment. He had it display sunshine. He listened to music, while it painted his room all the colors of the sunset. He had seen the sun before, the real one, or at least as much as anyone could see of it through the enclouding. And of course he had memories of perfect sunsets, of sunrises over water so blue he thought it had been dyed. But he had never seen real sunshine before. He supposed he wasn't really seeing it now either. But K liked it, like the light and the warmth, even if it wasn't real. He still wondered what it would be like to not be alone.

 

After his 7th, after he washed off the blood and patched himself up, he activated Joi.

 

He waited nervously while she faded into being. She had a smile on her face and an indistinct blur at her side. Her appearance rapidly flickered as she scanned his user profile and micro-expressions to choose a Joi for him. She settled on a very human appearance, in simple black clothes. K thought it might be the default. The blur at her side settled as well, and an iridescent blue butterfly ( ** _Morpho menelaus_** ) fluttered to land on her shoulder. It trailed holographic dust that fell like glittering snow.

 

“Hello,” she said with a gentle smile. She reached a hand up to stroke the butterfly.

 

“Hi,” he responded nervously. He hadn’t expected the false-daemon, hadn’t expected her to have a digital soul. He supposed it made sense; she was for humans, and humans responded better when the artificial lifeforms they interacted with appeared to have daemons. If he were able to, K would have wished that Madam and Sir had extended that feature to him.

 

“Oh, this is Ilo,” she said still smiling, as she noticed his staring at the butterfly, “I’m sorry if he makes you nervous. Would you like me to send him away?”

 

She asked without any hint of her own preference, and K didn’t know how to respond. A human would never offer, though he sometimes secretly wished they would. Daemons liked him even less than humans did. But, if she were enough like a human, he would be taking away her sunshine… she would be alone like him. He didn’t want her to be alone. 

 

“You don’t have to do that,” he eventually responded.

 

“Then he wants to stay. We’re both so excited to meet you,” she said with a grin, “What should we call you?”

 

“Officer KD6-3.7,” he answered.

 

“Hmm… is it ok if we call you K?” she asked playfully.

 

He considered it. The other officers usually called him K. He was fairly sure they had called the other KD6-3s that too; it meant they didn’t have to keep learning new serial numbers. But it made him feel special to have an almost-name.

 

“Sure, you can call me K. What should I call you?” he asked in an attempt to give her some small measure of freedom.

 

“Oh! How rude of me. I’m Joi! But you can call me whatever you want,” she finished with a sultry look. K ignored it. He wasn’t made to be comfortable with expressions of physical attraction. It was, after all, not required for his function.

 

“Nice to meet you Joi,” he said with a genuine smile, “And you too Ilo.”

 

After that K looked forward to something each day. He looked forward to going home to sunshine. He looked forward to the part of each day where he didn’t have to pretend he was happy being alone.

 

He knew she wasn’t human. But neither was he. And maybe together they could figure out what it was to be real. To have sunshine. To not be alone.


End file.
